Fund Performance per day (inception date, 20 Oct 06) : -4.2552%

Thursday and Friday

EUR - Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, hinted again on Thursday that interest rates would rise another quarter percentage point to 3.5 per cent in December, telling the European parliament that if the ECB's base-line scenario was confirmed, "it will remain warranted to further withdraw monetary accommodation". Many economists expect a de-facto ECB pause in 2007 as eurozone economic growth slows and the region digests a three percentage point rise in German VAT in January. But recent data have shown eurozone growth remaining robust. Germany's GfK institute yesterday reported consumer confidence at a five-year high.


USD - Prices for newly built American homes have suffered their largest drop year-on-year since 1970, according to data released yesterday, highlighting the dramatic nature of the downturn of the US housing sector. The Federal Reserve has been juggling the threat posed to the -economy by the slump in housing with the threat from historically high levels of inflation. On Wednesday the central bank signalled it was -relatively content with the current balance, predicting "moderate growth" for the economy and deciding to hold rates steady at 5.25 per cent. Economists warned that the housing figures were not entirely reliable. The greenback was pounded on a weaker GDP report

Tomorrow

0900h - NZD : M3 YoY

1100h - JPY : Vehicle Production

1530h - EUR : Italian Retailers' General Confidence / Italian Services Survey

1630h - GBP : M4 Money Supply